[Space Intro]
[Verse 1]
In the early years of the 21st century,
This world was watched by eyes we couldn’t see.
Greater than Man’s, yet mortal as our own,
Their plans against us, quietly they’ve sown.
[Chorus]
War of the Worlds, a new version unfolds,
Minds vast and cool, plans foretold.
Infinite complacence, we were observed,
As they drew their plans, our world unnerved.
[Break]
War1
[Break]
Of the worlds
[Break]
Perils
[Instrumental]
[Verse 2]
People went about, with little care,
Unaware of the eyes in the cosmos, there!
With envious gaze, across the ethereal gulf,
They watched our world, their plans unfurl.
[Chorus]
War of the Worlds, a new version unfolds,
Minds vast and cool, plans foretold.
Infinite complacence, we were observed,
As they drew their plans, our world unnerved.
[Break]
War1
[Break]
Of the worlds
[Break]
Perils
[Instrumental]
[Bridge]
In the 24th year, the great disillusionment,
October’s eve, with a sense of lament.
Business was better, the war scare had waned,
But on the airwaves, their story was framed.
[Chorus]
War of the Worlds, a new version unfolds,
Minds vast and cool, plans foretold.
Infinite complacence, we were observed,
As they drew their plans, our world unnerved.
[Break]
War1
[Break]
Of the worlds
[Break]
Perils
[Instrumental]
[Outro]
On that October evening, the world tuned in,
To hear the story of how the chaos did begin.
A tale of invasion, of worlds beyond our own,
The War of the Worlds, forever etched in stone.
[End]
[Silence]
“The War of the Worlds” was a Halloween episode of the radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles. This adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel “The War of the Worlds” (1898) was performed and broadcast live at 8 pm ET on October 30, 1938, over the CBS Radio Network. The episode gained notoriety for its realistic portrayal, which led to panic among some members of the listening audience, convincing them that a Martian invasion was underway.
“The War of the Worlds” begins with a paraphrase of the beginning of the novel, updated to contemporary times. The announcer introduces Orson Welles:
We know now that in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own. We know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacence, people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood which by chance or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space. Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. In the 39th year of the 20th century came the great disillusionment. It was near the end of October. Business was better. The war scare was over. More men were back at work. Sales were picking up. On this particular evening, October 30th, the Crossley service estimated that 32 million people were listening in on radios….